Category Archives: Housing

G20 Finance Track in Asheville + Prosfygika

This week’s episode features two segments.

G20 Finance Track in Asheville this month

First up, you’ll hear Jeremy and Sea speak about the upcoming G20 Financial Track gathering of Finance Ministers and Central Bankers happening in Asheville at the end of August this year. We speak about the G20, neoliberalism, and some of the organizing happening locally. More info available at G20AVL.NoBlogs.Org

Squatted Neighborhood of Prosfygika

Then you’ll hear a segment form the June 2026 episode #103 of B(A)D News: Angry Voices from Around The World by the A-Radio Network. In this audio, members of Crna Luknja from Ljubljana, Slovenia, speak with participants in the autonomous, squatted neighborhood of Athens, Prosfygika, a name which translates to Refugee. The audio was recorded on May 28th , so likely the situation has shifted and you can find more information and updates at SaveProsfygika.GR/index.php/en/ for English. According to a statement from June 24th found on that website, the hunger strikes of Aristotelis Chantzis and Suzon Doppagne were suspended following municipal statements in line with movement demands. Check the Materials page for statements, photos, audios and documentaries from and about the community.

Announcements

Mutual Aid in Spokane in the wake of massive fires

A comrade sent some fundraising links for mutual aid, particularly for undocumented community members and folks at the Colville Tribal Rez north of town where fire damage has been extensive. Check our show notes for links.

Asheville Anti-Surveillance Week of Action August 16-22

CAMS (Community Against Mass Surveillance) is doing a week of action against mass surveillance alongside the nationwide DeFlock week of action. Check our show notes for the local schedule of events in Asheville.

SCHEDULE FOR WEEK OF ACTION:

Aug 16-22:

Sunday 8/16 – Week of Action kickoff & potluck: coalition building, info and resource sharing, and organizing for week of action and beyond, 1 to 3 pm, Home Hub Pavilion, 27 Balm Grove Ave., W AVL, rain or shine (covered outdoor space and access to indoor spaces).

**Tuesday evening 8/18 – online panel and Q&A with local and national experts, 7 – 8:30 pm.**

Friday evening 8/21 – Infoshare, Q&A, Speak Out + dance party, 6 to 10 pm, location TBD.

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Featured Track:

Continue reading G20 Finance Track in Asheville + Prosfygika →

Mutual Aid in CA’s Fire Country (with Dani Burlison)

This week, we’re sharing this a chat with my friend, Dani Burlson on her recent book, Red Flag Warning: Mutual Aid and Survival in California’s Fire Country! We speak about fire ecology, housing pressures and mutual aid in the wake of natural (and human caused) disaster. Check the show notes for links to a few projects mentioned. You can find more of Dani’s writings at DaniBurlison.com/, books listed here, and more by Caw at CawShinyThings.com

Northern CA projects mentioned:

Southern CA projects mentioned:

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Featured Track:

Be Yourself by Air Power from Be Yourself 12″

Continue reading Mutual Aid in CA’s Fire Country (with Dani Burlison) →

Jail and Housing Conditions, Recovery in Post-Helene Asheville

WNC Tenants network logo, Sumud Collective logo and Asheville Community Bail Fund logoWNC Tenants network logo, Sumud Collective logo and Asheville Community Bail Fund logo

This week on The Final Straw Radio, you’ll hear three  interviews relating to community needs and recovering concerning Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina.

If you’re a non-Pacifica radio station airing the show, here’s a link for the 58 minute radio edition while Archive.Org continues to be down due to hacker attacks.

First up, you’ll hear Jen Hampton of the WNC Tenants Network about the re-opening of eviction courts in Buncombe County and conditions of housing in an already difficulty place to live.

Then, Bruce and G talk from the Asheville Community Bail Fund speak about conditions in the local jail during and after this unnatural disaster.

Finally, Yousef of the Palestinian and Arab-led Sumud Collective speaks about his experience of the storm and recovery work in the region in an interview recorded a couple of weeks ago.

Other links from Jen:

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Featured Track:

  • Reflections by The Supremes from Gold
Continue reading Jail and Housing Conditions, Recovery in Post-Helene Asheville →

Homeless Organizing in Oakland and Rural Relief After Helene

This week on the show we’re featuring two inteviews. First up, you’ll hear from Freeway, a houseless activist in Oakland, CA, about the recent series of sweeps of homeless being promoted by Governor Gavin Newsom. Freeway has been a member of Wood Street Commons and is now a member of Oakland Homeless Union (IG or donate).

Then, Janet of Rural Organizing and Resilience (IG or donate) in Madison County, speaks about post-Hurricane Helene organizing and disaster preparedness in the mountains of Western North Carolina. More and links to be added soon.

Other groups mentioned by Janet of ROAR include:

Announcement

Phone Zap for Buncombe County Jail

Members of the Asheville Community Bail Fund have announced a phone zap concerning conditions in the Buncombe County Detention Facility where reports are coming out of a lack of clean water, irregular bathroom breaks and other lack of access are leading to calls for those in the jail to be released or transferred to a facility with more humane conditions.

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Featured Track:

  • I Wanna Know If It’s Good To You by Funkadellic from Free Your Mind… And Your Ass Will Follow
Continue reading Homeless Organizing in Oakland and Rural Relief After Helene →

Andrew Lee on Defying Displacement

We’re sharing a recent chat with Andrew Lee (instagram / tiktok), author of the book Defying Displacement: Urban Recomposition and Social War, released by AK Press on February 6th 2024. Andrew and I talk about gentrification, speculation and financialization of houses, the destruction of communities by racial capitalism and the state, and some methods used to fight back and stay put. Andrew shouts out Decolonize Philly as a project to pay attention to.

Housecleaning

Weekly, we work to bring you and our wider audience, including over the radio waves, conversations that you won’t hear many other places. And we operate at a minimal cost, paying for transcription, printing, mailing, web hosting to make sure that information is easier translatable and accessible, including to our comrades behind bars. The most regular way that we fund that is from the patreon.

Our patreon is currently below supporting our monthly operating costs of around $500, so we’re asking folks on the fence of supporting this project who have a patreon account to kick in and help at $3 or more a month. If you don’t have a patreon, we do have a liberapay you can psuedonymously kick us money from or set up a recurring payment from paypal and we also can take money via venmo or stripe.

If you haven’t supported us before or haven’t for a while now and can afford to, we’d really appreciate the help. And if you’re already supporting us or have in the past in various ways, thank you.

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Featured Track:

  • Doin It (instrumental) by LL Cool J
Continue reading Andrew Lee on Defying Displacement →

Mohammad Hureini of Youth of Sumud

This week, we’re featuring a conversation with Mohammad Hureini (twitter / instagram), a young activist from Masafer Yatta, an area in the hills south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank in Palestine. Mohammad is a member of a non-violent group called Youth of Sumud that struggles to hold on to the sites and lives of Palestinian villages despite displacement by the Israeli military occupation as well as the illegal zionist settlements (like the neighboring Havat Ma’on) and their routine violence and impunity. For the hour, Mohammad speaks about the work of Youth of Sumud, their recent report co-published with The Good Shepherd on increased settler violence entitled Indigenous Erasure: How the zionist movement is using state sanctioned violence to eliminate the Palestinian communities of the West Bank, the South African genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice and other topics.

Organizations Mohammad names doing on the ground support:

Recent interviews about the conflict in Palestine

Announcements

B(A)D News #75 is out!

Check out the January 2024 episode featuring updates on support for antifascists facing charges in Budapest from February 11, 2023; reflections from an Autonomist on the ’80s-’90s journal “Radikal”; a portion of our interview with Israeli refuser Yuval Dag; and an interview from Solidarity Zones on the case of accused Russian war sabateur, Ruslan Siddiqui

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Featured Track:

  • Building Steam with a Grain of Salt by DJ Shadow from Entroducing….
Continue reading Mohammad Hureini of Youth of Sumud →

Alabama Prisoners Speak + JJ Ayers of Winnemucca Indian Colony

This week on the show, we featured 2 segments: a chat with Michael Kimble & Gerald Griffin about conditions in Donaldson CF prison in Alabama; and Jim J. Ayers, a 42 year resident in 6 generations of lineage at Winnemucca Indian Colony facing eviction by the Tribal Council.

Conditions at Donaldson Prison in Alabama

First up, anarchist prisoner Michael Kimble and his friend Gerald Griffin talk about the current situation at William E Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama. Following the pause of prisoner work stoppages in October of this year, Gerald and Michael talk about violence at the institution, overcrowding and under staffing, lack of medical care, mistreatment of gay and other marginalized prisoners and other, hard topics. There is mention of extortion, violence, drug use, homophobia and other topics, so listener discretion is advised. You can information on how to get in touch with Michael and Gerald in the show notes, as well as Michael’s blog AnarchyLive , and we’ll be mailing out the latest Fire Ant Journal and our past interviews with Michael Kimble (5/19/2019 & 12/28/2015).

Michael Kimble #138017
William E. Donaldson Correctional
100 Warrior Ln
Bessemer, AL 35023

Gerald Griffin #247505
William E. Donaldson Correctional
100 Warrior Ln
Bessemer, AL 35023

If you’d like to donate to Michael’s legal and other costs outside of putting money on his commissary with his ADOC #, you can give a donation to our accounts and specify MK in the comment so we know where to pass it. Blue Ridge Anarchist Black Cross is also selling $20 Fire Ant Journal t-shirts designed by Michael Kimble as a benefit for him, linked in our shownotes. We hope to send out copies of the latest Fire Ant Journal with our patreon mailers at the beginning of January, for new supporters at $5 or anyone supporting at $10 or more per month, which goes to support our transcription costs. More on that and the places you can send funds directly to Michael at https://tfsr.wtf/support

Jim J. Ayers Resists Eviction at Winnemucca Indian Colony

Then, we return to the Winnemucca Indian Colony following last week’s conversation with Kyle Missouri who is resisting eviction from the colony in Humboldt County, Nevada. You’ll hear Jim Ayers, tribal council chairman until 2012 talk about how the current Tribal Council came to power at Winnemucca, the council’s wielding of private police and BIA officers to siege remaining holdouts to the eviction orders, Jimmy’s 6 generations of ancestors stretching back on the Winnemucca Indian lands and the ongoing legal proceedings heading through the ITCAN court as residents attempt to stop the council’s evictions, home wrecking and banishment actions.

  • Sandra Freeman of Water Protector Legal Collective is currently representing Jim in legal proceedings and are a great source for updates on the situation and ways for, especially legal workers, to plug in
  • Donations for the WIC residents can be sent to via cashapp to $DefendWIC
  • a fundraiser to support South Side Street Medics, an Indigenous-led crew to support providing first aid and training to residents of the Indian Colony
  • Jim Ayers interviewed in December 2021 by Honor Life youtube channel
  • Video discussing Judy Rojo (chairperson of disputed Winnemucca Tribal Council) by Man Red

Next Week…

We should be bringing you a chat with Sophie Lewis on her new book, Abolish The Family: A Manifesto of Care and Liberation, out from Verso Books in October of 2022.

Announcements

Asheville NYE Noise Demo and Bailout Action

If you’re in the Asheville area, you’re invited to join Asheville Community Bail project, Pansy Collective, Blue Ridge ABC and other local grouplets in a noise demo at the Buncombe County Jail, the deadliest jail for inmates in North Carolina, at 7pm on Saturday 12/31 at Pack Square. It’s suggested you dress warm and bring noise makers. Simultaneous, there will be a bailout action to get folks out of the jail. You can donate to this effort via the paypal for avlcommunitybail(at )riseup( dot)net or the venmo for blueridgeabc(at )riseup( dot)net, and any returned bail money will roll back into the community bail fund for future release activities. Learn more at avlcommunitybail.carrd.co

Zine: https://thefinalstrawradio.mayfirst.info/files/2022/12/UPDATED-NYE-Zine.pdf

Phone Zap to Press Indiana to Get Treatment for Khalfani

IDOC watch is calling on folks to call and email the Indiana Department of Corrections to pressure them to move long-term political prisoner Khalfani Malik Khaldun (state name Leonard McQuay #874304) moved into a medical facility to remove the two cysts growing on his left temple since October of this year. Check our shownotes for a link to the blog post on idocwatch.org

Bad News #63

This month’s BAD News is now available! You can hear:

  • 1431am on the eviction of Mundo Nuevo squat in Thessaloniki and the murder by policeof Kalo Fragoulis, a 16 year old Roma and the death of a 12 year old child because of inadequate housing conditions;
  • Črna luknja shares a longer interview on the eviction of Mundo Nuevo squat in Thessaloniki;
  • A-Radio Berlin with a contribution from an anarchist perspective on anti-militarism and nationalism during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990’s. A segment of a longer interview;
  • Frequenz A concludes the show wih an interview with the accused in the so called “Luwi71-Trial” in Leipzig so-called Germany. The Luwi71 is a house (in the east of Leipzig) occupied for about 2 weeks back in august 2020.

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Featured Tracks:

  • Ebb Tide by the Mar-Keys from Last Night
  • Ghost Town by The Specials on The Two Tone Story (RIP Terry Hall!)
Continue reading Alabama Prisoners Speak + JJ Ayers of Winnemucca Indian Colony →

Stop Evictions at Winnemucca Indian Colony

On Tuesday, December 13th, I spoke with Kyle Missouri, a resident of the Winnemucca Indian Colony in Humboldt County, Nevada where a longstanding conflict between residents and the Winnemucca Tribal Council has come to a head recently with the evictions of elders, youths, and other residents into the snow. We talk about his family’s roots in the Indian Colony, some background on the place and the conflict with the so-called Roja Council, the contested lithium mine at Thacker Pass and the court challenge to evictions, banishment and house demolition this Thursday, 12/15/22. Check our show notes for links to other sources of information, ways you can show up and places you can donate.

  • You can follow Kyle on facebook under the name Kyle Missourii (like the state with an extra ‘I’ at the end)
  • Also see interviews with Elders who’ve been evicted and updates on Instagram at @Neweneensokopa
  • Learn more about background and legal support by following Water Protector Legal Collective on social media and more at linktr.ee/waterprotectorlegal
  • And donate to the cashapp for supporting displaced families at $defendWIC. They’re looking for more lawyers who can support the efforts as well as journalists who can be on the ground and talking about this situation or reaching out for interviews.
  • You can watch the court hearing this Thursday linked in the latest update at Water Protector Legal Collective’s website, waterprotectorlegal.org
  • Kyle’s recent interview with The B&B Indigenous Podcast (appearing about an hour 8 minutes in)

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Featured Track:

  • Skirmish (Niveau Zero Remix) by Filastine from Looted
Continue reading Stop Evictions at Winnemucca Indian Colony →

Heater Blocs and Political Prisoners

Heater Blocs and Political Prisoners

This week on The Final Straw we have 4 whopping segments, tidbits in length but whopping in importance.

First up, you’ll hear from Zachariah Jazz (@BlackariahJazz161 on twitter), who distributes alcohol jet heaters with ABQHeaterBloc in so-called Albuquerque, NM, to talk about their efforts to help keep folks living on the streets safer from the elements through mutual aid. [ 00:02:08 – 00:18:56 ]

Then, Tom of Heater Bloc Chicago talks about the construction of these devices, based on shared design.

After that, you’ll hear Josh of the Certain Days Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar collective to talk about this year’s edition and briefly update listeners on the situations of Oso Blanco & Eric King, two anarchist political prisoners Josh does support work for and works on projects with. [ 00:37:42 – 00:50:28 ]

Finally, Sean Swain’s weekly segment! [ 00:51:31 – 00:58:09 ]

Next week…

We’ll be sharing a recent conversation with antifascist researcher and activist, Matthew Lyons, author of the 2015 PM Press & Kersplebedeb book, Insurgent Supremacists, and contributor to the Three Way Fight blog to speak about Christian Nationalist tendencies and their relationship to distinctly racist elements of the far right in the so-called USA, approaches to understanding their approach of Christian Patriarchy as regards axes of gender, sexuality, abortion and bodily autonomy, as well as a call for antifascists to understand and more actively oppose these tendencies. More of Matthews thoughts at his blog, MatthewNLyons.net

Announcements

Mutulu Shakur Released!

It is bittersweet for us to share the news that Dr. Mutulu Shakur of the Republic of New Afrika, imprisoned since 1986, is being released from prison. Bittersweet because his case and incarceration were a travesty, and also because Dr. Shakur was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer in 2019 and has suffered in prison since. We are overjoyed that Dr. Shakur can pass on to the ancestors surrounded by loved ones on the outside of the bars. You can donate to his support via paypal to mutulushakur@hotmail.com. You can hear our conversation from a few months back about his case and health at our website. Free them all!

Mutual Aid Efforts

Lots of us are involved in social efforts of mutual aid, which can be a lot on top of just keeping afloat personally in capitalism, keeping rent paid, etc. In line with the subject matter of most of today’s show, we were hoping to highlight a couple of projects that could use money and support in the good work they’re doing during this so-called holiday season.

  • There is an effort in Eastern Kentucky, which was hit hard by floods and tornadoes this year that left many homeless, to raise money for cold gear and other help that can be donated to at @ekymutualaid on venmo or paypal, or $ekymutualaid on cashapp.
  • Chehalis River Mutual Aid Network of rural so-called Washington state’s info can be found at linktr.ee/crmutualaidnet
  • Kinlani Mutual Aid in so-called Flagstaff, AZ is collecting cold weather gear at Talahogan Infoshop, connecting people and building solidarity. More info at KinlaniMutualAid.Org
  • Asheville Survival Program is also doing a drive for cold weather clothes. You can find info on their site, linktr.ee/AVLSurvival
  • Finally, the Knoxville shared radical space known as MASK that was used by East TN Harm Reduction, First Aid Knoxville & Knoxville Radical Library could use some support on recovering materials destroyed in this summer’s flooding. You can learn more at https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-mutual-aid-space-recover-from-flood

Support

Hey listeners. As prices rise and capitalism chugs along, crushing us in its wake, so goes our patreon. We’ve recently lost a about $50 a month in support, which leaves us below $500/mo, which puts us in danger in falling short of being able to pay for transcription services and web hosting each month. We have a regular goal of $550 to cover those months with 5 Sundays and occasional extra costs.

If you can support us via a one-time donation, a merch purchase, a recurring donation via librapay or paypal or a subscription via patreon, we’d be much obliged. At patreon.com/tfsr those who support us at $2 or more a month have access to the occasional early audio release and upcoming planned behind the scenes chats among the producers. At the $5 level and above, you’ll get the aforementioned releases plus some stickers to show our appreciation. For $10 or more per month, you’ll get all that plus a monthly zine in the mail sent to you or the prisoner of your choice. Finally, for $15 per month and above you get those thank you’s plus a TFSR tshirt. But we don’t expect these meager enticements to get you to fork over the cash, honestly it seems more likely you’d kick in a few bucks because you have a little extra and appreciate our transcription work that allows for easier translation and accessibility of our episodes as well as easier sharing with prisoners and others who can’t hear the podcast. You can learn more at tfsr.wtf/support

That said, if you don’t have cash, please consider rating the podcast on amazon, google or apple podcasts to help us beat the algorithm, follow and amplify our social media posts (tfsr.wtf), share our content with others in real life, or try to get us on your local community or college radio station (tfsr.wtf/radio). More info on this and more at our website. Thanks for the support!

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Featured Tracks:

  • War Within Us by Tragedy from Vengeance
  • The Girl With The Sun In Her Head by Orbital from In Sides
Continue reading Heater Blocs and Political Prisoners →

Fighting Back Against Displacement In Greece

This week, we spoke with Alex, an anarchist squatter in the Athenian neighborhood of Exarchia. They talk about repression by the New Democracy party, struggles against green washing wind turbines around rural Greece, the fires raging through the country, resistance to rape culture, fighting against the building of a metro station in Exarchia and the privatization of public spaces like Strefi Hill, police presence at Universities, anarcho-tourism and the hunger strike of anarchist prisoner Giannis Michialidas.

Links:

Announcements

Week of Solidarity

August 23-30th is the International Week of Solidarity with Anarchist Prisoners. The site https://Solidarity.International has suggestions of ways to get involved, a poster for this year, and place to contact to announce or share your action or event.

Reject Raytheon, WNC

On Earth Day 2022, affiliates of Reject Raytheon AVL performed a rally, march and direct action at the Bent Creek River Park to block traffic and protest the building of a factory by Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of aerospace war drone and fighter plan component manufacturer, Raytheon. You can support folks as they attend court at 9am on August 31st the Buncombe County courthouse, room 1A for trespassing charges. And you can learn more about the struggle to push back the murder machine manufacturer Raytheon locally at RejectRaytheonAVL.com

Firestorm Fundraiser

If you haven’t heard, our friends and sponsor Firestorm Books has purchased a building and will be moving down at 1022 Haywood Rd to the former site of Dr. Dave’s Automotive, near the Odditorium over the next year. They plan to donate the land to the Asheville Community Land Trust to be held in protection for perpetuity, but are fundraising now to pay for remediation and renovation of the space. You can support their efforts and help make this new space a reality by visiting their GiveButter page linked in our show notes for this episode.

TFSR Patreon

I’ll keep this short and sweet. A big shout out to the folks who’ve donated or joined our patreon recently. We’re still not at the level where our recurring donations will cover the monthly cost of our printing, mailing, web hosting and transcriptions (about $600 per month would do that) let alone saving up to help us cover future travels to gather interviews, but we’re moving that direction. To entice you, we’ve changed up our patreon to feature a new $3/mo level, and are offering occasional online patreon content to that and other levels including early releases, behind the scenes chats, updates and other things. If you can throw us some dough, we’d be much obliged. You can find more about the patreon at patreon.com/tfsr and learn other ways to support us at tfsr.wtf/support !

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Featured Track:


  • Αυτό Το Σύστημα [Διάβρωση Cover] by Γεμάτος Αράχνες, ρε Φίλε! from their 2021 split with Βελζεβούλ Τα μη χειρότερα

Continue reading Fighting Back Against Displacement In Greece →